The Developmental Funds are used to promote strategic cancer-research initiatives that the Cancer Center Director and other senior Cancer Center members have deemed important for the overall success of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory's cancer research program. An important use of these funds has been to support new faculty recruited to the Cancer Center and to promote development of new technologies, either within the research programs or in the Cancer Center Shared Resources. CSHL has a dynamic research environment with a relatively high turnover of faculty, compared to the traditional university model. This provides an opportunity to recruit outstanding young scientists at the beginning of their careers. The Developmental Funds are a critical component for this recruitment and have provided support for investigators who have gone on to establish vibrant and productive cancer-research programs. These investigators have been successful in obtaining independent funding to continue their research. An extremely valuable source of funding, the Developmental funds give the Cancer Center Director the flexibility to support novel projects and incorporate new technologies and approaches. This also significantly enhances the opportunity for investigators to pioneer new and exciting research directions. The Developmental Funds strengthen the Cancer Center initiatives by allowing the recruitment of additional new faculty, whose inventive research approaches complement and expand upon current cancer-research programs.